If you use Lazav, the Multifarious to copy Ashling the Pilgrim, put three Ashling activations on the stack, and then respond by changing Lazav into something else, what color is the damage considered for the purposes of protection and the like? Would changing him into a Burrenton Forge-Tender allow him to survive his own explosion, or would it be considered white damage since Lazav is now white?
For activated and triggered abilities, you look at the source of the damage at the time it is dealt to determine wether protection applies or not. In your scenario, Lazav is white, so he would have to have protection from white to survive the ability. Or some other relevant protection in regards to him being a Forge-Tender.
If you use Lazav, the Multifarious to copy Ashling the Pilgrim, put three Ashling activations on the stack, and then respond by changing Lazav into something else, what color is the damage considered for the purposes of protection and the like?
Damage is not considered to have a color. It is considered to have a source. In this case, the source of the damage would be that permanent as it appears at the time the damage is dealt. (Or, if that permanent is no longer around, how did it look when last on the battlefield?)
119.7. The source of damage is the object that dealt it. If an effect requires a player to choose a source of damage, they may choose a permanent; a spell on the stack (including a permanent spell); any object referred to by an object on the stack, by a prevention or replacement effect that’s waiting to apply, or by a delayed triggered ability that’s waiting to trigger (even if that object is no longer in the zone it used to be in); or a face-up object in the command zone. A source doesn’t need to be capable of dealing damage to be a legal choice. See rule 609.7, “Sources of Damage.”
608.2g If an effect requires information from the game (such as the number of creatures on the battlefield), the answer is determined only once, when the effect is applied. If the effect requires information from a specific object, including the source of the ability itself, the effect uses the current information of that object if it’s in the public zone it was expected to be in; if it’s no longer in that zone, or if the effect has moved it from a public zone to a hidden zone, the effect uses the object’s last known information. See rule 112.7a. If an ability states that an object does something, it’s the object as it exists—or as it most recently existed—that does it, not the ability.
609.7c Some effects from static abilities prevent or replace damage from sources with certain properties. For these effects, the prevention or replacement applies to sources that are permanents with that property and to any sources that aren’t on the battlefield that have that property.
Would changing him into a Burrenton Forge-Tender allow him to survive his own explosion, or would it be considered white damage since Lazav is now white?
It would be considered damage from a white source since Lazav is now white.
702.16. Protection
702.16e Any damage that would be dealt by sources that have the stated quality to a permanent or player with protection is prevented.
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Why bother with mere rulings when so many answers can be found in the Rules?
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Damage is not considered to have a color. It is considered to have a source. In this case, the source of the damage would be that permanent as it appears at the time the damage is dealt. (Or, if that permanent is no longer around, how did it look when last on the battlefield?)
It would be considered damage from a white source since Lazav is now white.